The biggest reasons for Assad’s military success is Russian air-power and calling for ceasefires intended to be broken by them. Iranian proxies and other terrorist tactics by Butcher Assad are secondary for his territorial gain. Without either of these, Assad’s criminality is no match for rebel will and ability. Russian, Syrian and Iranian regimes keep powerful militaries and sanctions from threatening them by using propaganda on the masses who global leaders answer to.

Assad’s use of chemical weapons

Bashar al Assad’s attack against civilians in Damascus was textbook regime depravity. Assad’s forces targeted the Douma neighborhood’s largest hospital and other civilian infrastructure in order to inflict maximum casualties. Assad’s goal was to break the will of the local civilian population and force the surrender of the anti-regime jihadist group, Jaysh al-Islam, that has operated in the area. He succeeded. Jaysh al-Islam accepted a surrender deal the day after the attack to evacuate Eastern Ghouta.

Assad, enabled by his allies Russia and Iran, likely also sought to test his freedom of action and impunity. He and his backers likely calculated that the U.S. would not respond if they escalated now, after President Donald Trump signaled his ultimate desire to withdraw from Syria after defeating remaining Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) forces in southeastern Syria. Assad has routinely increased the barbarity of his violence against Syrian civilians to determine what he can get away with without risking a serious Western reprisal.

Assad and his backers also sought to limit the extent to which the U.S. could verify the attack in order to mitigate the risks that the U.S. would be able to determine the credibility of local reporting. They reportedly disguised the nerve agent with Chlorine, an industrial agent used as a makeshift chemical weapon. They also conducted the attack in a besieged enclave in Damascus, far from the reach of U.S.-backed rebels or international observers. – ISW Senior Intelligence Planner Jennifer Cafarella

Syrian and Russian regime siege tactics
Russian ceasefires prevent rebels from attacking the regime, because they are trying to prove that they follow rules, while Russia and Assad break their own ceasefires to concentrate on killing civilians in Douma or, in the past, Aleppo.

During Syrian or Russian called “truces”, they attack Damascus suburbs, while holding observation posts against rebels who are intending to hold those so called “ceasefires”. Map: Russia and Iran in Southwest Syria This allows Russian and Syrian regime terrorists to shift their forces from elsewhere to concentrate on killing civilians and fighting rebels in a strategic location. Without those Russian sponsored “ceasefires,” Assad’s regime would be unable to take gains, even with barbarian Russian air-power backing him.

Syrian, Iranian and Russian regime propaganda efforts
Kremlin claiming that Assad would not use gas weapons, because it will draw negative attention to him is a false alibi. Assad has not been punished sufficiently for using chemical weapons in the past, and he feels emboldened to do so again, knowing Russia will provide political cover for his atrocities. The role of Syrian, Russian and Iranian propaganda is to convince the masses that Assad is a victim, or he is an only choice when in fact he is no better than Daesh.

The Russian military is no match of U.S. or allied forces, and former Russian economic advisor Andrei Illarionov admits Russia relies on propaganda to cause fear to those who do not understand America’s military strength. The Russian military is only formidable against civilians and under supplied rebels. Israel struck Syrian regime forces days before, without repercussions from Russia. The U.S. killed a few hundred Russian mercenaries hired by an oligarch known as Putin’s “chef” who runs the troll farm, Internet Research Agency, without any consequences earlier this year.

If anyone kept up with the Kremlin’s lies. They first claimed that there were no chemical attacks. Then they shifted blame to Israel and Britain separate times. The Kremlin later claimed that the gas attacks were fabricated.